Development of a dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction procedure for biodegradation studies on nonylphenol propoxylates under aerobic conditions

Abstract

Aerobic biodegradation behavior of nonylphenol propoxylates was investigated using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction as a simple and fast technique for sample preparation. The developed method proved to be efficient for the isolation and concentration of nonylphenol propoxylates before their quantification with the use of high performance liquid chromatography. The primary biodegradation of nonylphenol propoxylates was approximately 80 % by 10 days after the beginning of the test. However, the biodegradation products which were identified with the use of mass spectrometric detection persisted for many days. © The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com.